


light

by deadbeatfreak99



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluff, I Tried, M/M, honestly very cringey, lots of talk about stars and the moon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-14
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-16 08:03:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21032948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deadbeatfreak99/pseuds/deadbeatfreak99
Summary: ❝I thought there was no space for us in the sky.❞《In which San believes the moon has forgotten about him, and the stars bring him Wooyoung.》





	1. ｡✦one

**Author's Note:**

> originally completed on wattpad 23/08/19
> 
> spotify playlist link: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3wXCDf5KTyTaiZ6P9wRBKu?si=G-fx1GsZRE6Rx7VvhsyLhw

He was nine-years-old when he had first heard about it, chubby hands busy stacking legos to create what would soon be his magnum opus of castles, vibrant coloured bits and pieces scattered on the carpeted, living room floor around him as his grandmother stirred his mug of hot milk and honey.

Despite his main focus being building, he wasn't too distracted to listen to her recounting how she and her husband had met an impressive sixty years prior, for whilst he forced the bricks together, his eyes would constantly flicker to glance up at her nostalgic gaze directed down at his construction － even though it felt as if she weren't truly looking at it.

Her sudden chuckle like wind chimes that hadn't sung for a long time brought the young boy to a stop, now looking to her with features that reflected curiousity, and irises which shined as he realised she was getting to the main part of her story.

Excitement tickled at his insides as he quickly disregarded his work and shuffled onto his knees, dragging them upon the floor closer to her and throwing his head back so that his eager eyes met her fond ones.

She handed him his milk with a warm smile, her hand naturally setting upon his head and giving his hair a playful ruffle.

"After the first time it happened, I wasn't afraid anymore," she continued, "My mother explained that it was the same for everyone; the closer you get to your soulmate, the darker the world appears, but once you touch, your sight instantly comes back and everything around you seems to be glowing. Colours are brighter and lights are stronger, but most importantly, you can finally see who you are destined to love."

The older woman paused, her hand cupping the supple cheek of her grandchild who licked the remnants of milk from around his rosy lips, irises strained on locking with hers with a wonder and longing that made her heart burn with endearment.

"Your grandpa and I loved each other very much, San. I still love him now that he has left us," her voice fell into a hushed tone, cracking as logs of wood burning in a fireplace do, but soothing like the heat they give, "You too will one day find someone who will first turn your world dark so that they can then become your source of light, understand?"

He fervently nodded, a grin stretching his mouth to bare his tiny teeth, two of which were missing at the time.

"Remember, every one of us has their name written beside that of their love amongst the stars. If you ever feel lonely, look to the sky at night and they will remind you of your soulmate to come."


	2. ｡✦two

His eyelids felt heavy, casting shadows on his sight, all four of his limbs sore and his thigh muscles twitching from having cycled more than he usually did throughout the day. San was, however, not pitifully crawling into his bed nor taking a much needed shower, rather he had slid open the aluminium-framed glass door of his apartment that led to a small balcony, and found home on the towel he had left strewn upon the ground the previous night.

It was a somewhat tradition for him to do so whenever he had the chance, simply admiring the moon and stars that shined between two other overhead balconies that were fortunately not in the view's way.

Twelve years had come and gone since he had had his first talk with his grandmother about soulmates, and he had begged her to repeat her story to him numerous times since then, when he had settled beneath his duvet, tucked in up to his chin and had his irises glittering in the light his bedside lamp cast.

She passed away some years after, during his early years as a teen, and though he had wept for her who took on the role his mother hadn't, he reminisced on their little conversations with nothing other than smiles and serenity.

Now twenty-one-years of age, the stars were still his connection to her and he often found himself recalling her tale about soulmates.

It baffled him how right she was, when so long ago she had told him to look to the night sky should he ever be alone and those specks that shimmered like white jewels, would remind him that in fact he was not.

And yet, it had also been years since he had learned about soulmates, and even if from then to that very day he longed for love and searched for his destined partner, his wish remained unfulfilled.

He couldn't understand.

San had witnessed as one by one, the people around him found the ones with whom their names were written, his closest friends being ticked off the list of singles until he was the only one left. Sure, he was still young, but how could it be that his soulmate was the only one to not be found?

He despised when he did it, but he began to ponder whether his grandmother's information was truly accurate.

Perhaps there wasn't enough space amongst the stars for his name, or perhaps the moon judged him unfit to love.

With a sky so full, a universe so complex, he wondered if maybe not everyone was lucky enough to have a soulmate and he was one of those pitiful few.

As an ocean licked at the whites of his eyes, he let out a shallow exhale, letting his weary lids shut closed as the moon's glow encased his slender frame.


	3. ｡✦three

The first time it happened, he hadn't even been aware of its occurrence.

With his twenty-third birthday two months away and his will to succeed aflame with desire, he opened his own flower shop － being a florist his dream from the time he'd help his grandmother with caring for her garden － and the instant he'd slid the key into the door's lock for the first time and stepped inside, the dull colours he was used to seeing with became darker, much like when one gets a dizzy spell.

The fine layer of shadow that covered his sight lasted no more than a handful of seconds, and though what it implied would have been evident had he believed, he brushed it off to be his excitement getting the better of him for he had finally achieved his dream career.

He so proceeded to take a strong whiff of the room's musty air, which promptly brought a sharp cough out of him. San figured it needed a good sweep and wiping down, if the visible dust particles floating in the air and the grimy shopfront windows were anything to judge by.

It was a quaint yet sweet looking place, and it was his first time seeing it furnished with swirling white shelves and empty stone pots engraved with vines and leaves, stacked neatly beside each other.

His worn out sneakers tapped mutedly on the tiles as he walked towards the countertop behind which he will be stationed, his fingers tentatively gliding upon the unkempt metal rims of it before he turned and saw the entirety of what was then his.

Mind wandering and eager, his eyes saw the waves of red of an amaryllis and an aster embracing in a vase, the purple of an anemone in balance with the yellow of a calla on the higher shelf, cascading softly to the fragile pink of a carnation that met the timid lilac of a delphinium upon the lower.

Their colours would look so beautiful to those whose sight had been perfected.

A breath left him. How unfair of the world that no matter how much he adored pretty flowers and their unique colours, he'd never be able to enjoy their vibrance to the fullest.

Everyday he'd be seeing people walking in, ordering bouquets for loved ones or arranged pots as gifts, all capable of seeing the depth of the iris' purple and sunny nature of the daffodil's yellow, not thinking much of the fact that San envied them for it.

Nonetheless, the shop buzzed with what was to be, and a feeling that was rarely felt shrouded San's senses. It was a feeling of expectancy, a feeling that something wonderful was set to happen when time had ticked to the right moment.

He beamed, ash blond bangs sitting just above the fluttering lashes that lined his joyful eyes, still glancing about with satisfaction.

Something great was going to happen, he was sure.


	4. ｡✦four

It was the heart of night the second time he felt it, a couple weeks after he'd opened up his shop and officially became a florist in the town he loved so dearly.

He lay on his stomach upon his bed, his laptop open and playing an episode of a drama he had recently fallen victim to, one of his plushies kept nestled against the side of his face. His eyes had been focused on the bright screen that lit his otherwise dark room, until they weren't and his thought process went blank.

The light of his computer dulled, the black around him grew stronger, and suddenly he could hardly see at all.

He panicked.

San fisted at his eyes in the hopes of making them function properly again, when a possibly ludicrous idea crashed into his mind and his movements halted.

Was it happening? Could it finally be?

He sprung up and off his bed, earphones ripping from his ears and bare feet sliding on the cool floor as he struggled with his measly eyesight to his front door. Fiddling with the handle, he eventually grabbed hold of it and yanked it open, quite literally throwing himself into the common hall, pupils dilated as they zipped from side-to-side, disappointed to see no one.

The black was already beginning to fade away and terror struck him like lightening.

With no second thought he sprinted back inside, crossing his apartment in record time as he flung himself onto his balcony, panting with adrenaline and excitement as he grasped at the railing and looked over, down to the street.

His sight had nearly fully returned to him but amongst the scattered people that were walking along the sidewalk, none seemed to have felt the same thing as him.

He sighed, yet despite the fact that his soulmate had just walked past － or was he perhaps in a car? － he felt a relief and sheer happiness that had never coursed through him before, burn at his chest and dance along his skin. It was overwhelmingly powerful, enough to bring crystals to his eyes which then adorned his flushed cheeks like dew on the petals of pink roses.

He looked to the stars above him and smiled a smile so genuine it might as well have been his first.

"Grandma, you were right. There's love for me too." 


	5. ｡✦five

Since the first time he'd become aware of it, San had reached a mild level of paranoia but great levels of mirth and positivity. Suddenly, things didn't seem as bleak anymore. The stars hadn't forgotten about him after all, he decided, for they had given him a soulmate he had yet to fully meet.

Though he knew it to be his imagination, the colours of his flowers reflected more vivaciously in his eyes and it was enough to bring unto him extra bouts of glee.

How lucky of him to have someone in this world simply waiting for destiny to make them meet.

Whoever they were, they must have been close, for though some instances of his vision darkening were merely the fruits of his wishful imagination, a handful were most certainly real.

Their timing, however, was not always the best.

A prime example would be when he had been standing on his toes upon a low ladder, stretching to push a sack of fertiliser onto the top shelf in the storage room of his store. With very little warning, his vision had gone almost entirely black in seconds and he screeched, losing his footing until he crashed to the floor with a whine.

Another ill-timed occurrence was when he'd been walking back from the grocery store on a Sunday afternoon. Once more, the shadows on his vision abruptly increased to the point that he walked straight into a stop sign, yolk from his cracked eggs leaking all over his cartons of milk that miraculously hadn't burst open after dropping to the ground with a thump.

He had to admit, though he wouldn't trade finally having a soulmate for anything in the world, he did question why destiny kept making him suffer for them.

Aside from the multiple bruises he was getting from constantly bashing into random objects, it almost felt as if he were being teased by how close their proximity was when they still had yet to properly cross paths.

Perhaps it was just fun to see him squirm in his bed every night until he slept, waiting for his soulmate to walk by his apartment like the first time and call out to them, or maybe it was more amusing simply watching him trip and squint his quite useless eyes in attempts of seeing where his destined lover was.

No matter, he would think to himself. He was merely grateful that there actually was someone out there for him. As long as they could eventually be together, he would wait all the time the moon wanted. 


	6. ｡✦six

San was not, in fact, the most fortunate of men.

It was the 9th of July, his final day as a twenty-two-year-old, and there he was, under the blistering heat of the sun, late for work and trying to mend his bicycle's flat tyre. Of course, all bad things had to happen to him.

That morning, his alarm hadn't gone off as his phone had died during the night, which resulted in him getting out of bed late. Upon then seeing his reflection in the bathroom mirror, he realised that his hair had dried in an awkward position, with voluminous chunks and squashed parts － something that took him ages to fix. After which he made himself a bowl of cereal only to choke on the foul taste of expired milk, having accidentally used what was left of the carton he was meant to toss out the day before.

And now here he was on the side of a street, with trails of sweat marching along his back and down his temples, causing his dyed hair to gradually fall into strands against his damp forehead, despite his effort that morning to make it stay well.

He huffed, wiping the sides of his face with the back of his palm prior to finishing pumping up his front tyre.

A few more minutes and sure enough he had succeeded, mentally praising himself for being prepared for the situation as it had happened a number of times before which had ended in him being stranded.

Then a shameful hour late to work, he hurried to stow the pump in the small basket at the head of his bike and slung a leg over the contraption, hardly positioning himself atop the seat before he took off at an increasingly fast speed.

In hindsight, it was not the smartest of things to do.

At that time of day, the roads were always more hectic － even if he lived in a tranquil town on the outskirts of the city － and he himself was not adjusted to cycling quickly.

Obviously, it was then that fate had his soulmate be near, and his vision fogged with a blackness deeper than the times prior, until his sight was utterly taken away. Fear bubbled within him whilst he heard multiple gasps around him as he began losing control of his bicycle, just about nearing a bend. His balance on the two large wheels wavered and his wobbling worsened until a distant voice shouted, "Watch out!" and he crashed into something, tumbling to the coarse ground.

Amidst his groans and mumbled curses were mixed in those of another person, he noted, a man's, and San guiltily understood that he must have run into a bystander.

His heart beat erratically in his chest, worry about the other's condition surpassing his own current discomfort for he had taken the brunt of the incident.

"I'm － I'm so sorry," he forced out in stammers, blindly extending an arm to reach to the man, "Are you. . . alright?"

The instant his fingertips settled against hot flesh, his pulse jolted and that sensation of something great and airy reared its head like an awakened beast within him.

His squeezed eyes relaxed until they fluttered open, and the words of his grandmother whispered in his ears with the faint breeze that lapped at his neck.

Abreast him lay a man of about his age, with soft tufts of brown hair caressing the top of his pale face, his glossed lips parted in soundless whines, and his eyes still shut.

It was then that San understood.

The world was suddenly a luminous sight, the colours around him so pigmented he couldn't have ever envisioned them to have actually been so all along. Everything appeared to have fallen into place, the sky a clean baby blue and the bushes along the sidewalk a refreshing green.

But at the centre of his vision, the being that seemed to be giving such light and to be receiving it twice as much, was the brunet at his side, laying upon the warm bricks.

San stared.

It was happening － no, it had already happened.

His touch remained unmoving on the male's shoulder, exposed by the loose fitting tank top the latter wore, and the contact brought him to shudder, their skins melting into one another's in a way that couldn't be seen by the naked eye, but that he felt.

It was when his palm fully set on his shoulder that the brunet's eyes opened, and San was delighted to see that the array of emotions that trickled across his soulmate's sharp features were akin to those he felt.

He admired as those pretty eyes glanced around in bewilderment, as those sweet lips parted and moved with no words leaving them, and he flushed as their gazes eventually locked and a feeling of being complete enveloped him.

"You're. . ."

It was the first time he had heard the man's voice and he couldn't wait for it to not be the last, for it made his insides feel gooey and his mind foggy with nothing but this man's presence.

"My name is San."

The other blinked, a smile adoring his mouth as a bead of water dripped from the corner of his right eye.

"I'm Wooyoung."

"Wooyoung," the florist parroted, testing the name on his tongue, butterflies fluttering inside the cage that was his stomach, "it seems that destiny has decided it was our time to meet."


	7. ｡✦seven

Perhaps it was because of him having found his special one, or perhaps it was because now everything that he saw was more breathtaking than before, but the stars that shone the following night were the most spectacular he had ever seen them be.

Wooyoung had gone over to the older's apartment when he had learned it was the latter's birthday, and after lots of talking over slices of frosted cake and laughing out of pure delight, the evening ended with them laying on San's balcony, gazing up at the night sky.

Though crammed, neither shifted nor voiced discomfort, contrary to so, Wooyoung lay his elbow behind the other's head, letting his fingers twirl the fine locks of blond with a delicacy that made San's scalp tingle.

"The world is so much more stunning now, isn't it?"

Wooyoung smiled, eyes flitting to look at the side profile of his lover.

"It is."

"And the stars," San continued, irises shimmering like oceans as profound as the Pacific, "aren't they amazing?"

"They are."

San's head lolled to the side to face his partner, content to see the curl in his lips but bashful to realise he was being admired.

"The moon made us wait for too long," he whispered after moments of silence, almost as if confessing a secret held dear, "I had given up and believed I was alone. I thought there was no space for us in the sky."

The words reflected Wooyoung's own emotions to perfection, and he ignored the twinge of pain he felt in his chest at the years he had spent believing he was fated to being without love until death.

Releasing a quiet exhale, he drew his face nearer to that of his lover, placing a feathery kiss on the tip of the blushing man's nose and chuckling when he saw San's timid reaction.

"I guess I should thank the stars for having reserved a safe spot just for us."

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!


End file.
